Feitlowitz, Marguerite. A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 302 pages.

This well-crafted book is consuming and painful to read. It is an account of Argentina from 1976-1983, a time when state-sponsored terrorism claimed 30,000 civilians. They were tortured to death in 341 death camps, or thrown into the ocean from airplanes, or simply "disappeared." The author spent years interviewing victims of this Dirty War. Many pages tell the story from their perspective, whether they are the Mothers of the Plaza, or organizers of farmers in the north. Today in Argentina, justice for the victims is still the exception rather than the rule.

There's something scarier here than there was with the good Germans under Nazism, since there were few external pressures on Argentina and no racism imposed from above. The 1976 coup had massive civilian support, and for once the CIA was not involved. The middle class in Argentina watched neighbors getting dragged off into the night, and then they'd line up at disco clubs as if everything was normal. (The generals lost power only after they declared war on Britain.) The author is troubled too; she refers now and again to the vocabulary of this new fascism, as a "hook" into Argentina's psyche. This aspect of her book doesn't provide answers. The only answers anywhere are found in the courage of those who resisted, or simply persevered. Above all, this book is a tribute to their spirit.
ISBN 0-19-510635-0

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